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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26736820">And They Were Flatmates...</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomhivemast3r/pseuds/phantomhivemast3r'>phantomhivemast3r</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bartimaeus - Jonathan Stroud</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Modern AU, Roommates, Sort Of, coffee shop AU</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 10:20:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,832</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26736820</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomhivemast3r/pseuds/phantomhivemast3r</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kitty is studying for midterms at a café when a familiar face asks to sit at her table. The boy turns out to be her flatmate’s brother, and their chance meeting leads to some interesting revelations and the beginning of a new friendship.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Bartimaeus Fic Exchange 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>And They Were Flatmates...</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/avaenox/gifts">avaenox</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Oh my god, will you <em>shut up?!</em>” Kitty hissed at her phone, glaring as notification after notification popped up in quick succession.</p>
<p>“I haven’t said anything yet, but message received,” a soft voice responded. Kitty jumped, startled, and noticed a boy standing next to her table, a tiny smile tugging at the corners of his lips. Kitty’s mouth fell open in shock.</p>
<p>“…Bartimaeus?” she asked slowly, utterly confused. This boy looked nearly identical to the flatmate who was currently blowing up her phone, if a tad younger.</p>
<p>The boy laughed, a bright sound, and Kitty couldn’t help but a smile a little in response.</p>
<p>“No, not Bartimaeus, but I certainly know him,” the boy said. He gestured to the open seat across from Kitty and she nodded, quickly gathering up the plethora of books she’d scattered across the tabletop. The boy sat down and shrugged off his backpack, then placed his coffee on the table and held out his other hand to Kitty. “My name is Ptolemy.”</p>
<p>“Kitty,” she responded, shaking his hand. The name struck a chord, though she couldn’t immediately place where it came from. She raised an eyebrow and took a sip of her own coffee before asking, “I’m assuming you and Bartimaeus are related?”</p>
<p>“Yes, he’s my older brother,” Ptolemy replied, gesturing to himself with a laugh. “If it wasn’t obvious.”</p>
<p>“<em>Oh!</em>” Kitty exclaimed, slapping a palm to her forehead. “Oh my god, <em>Ptolemy</em>! I can’t believe I didn’t recognize the name, wow… Nice to finally meet you!”</p>
<p>“I take it Bartimaeus has mentioned me, then?” Ptolemy asked, and Kitty rolled her eyes exasperatedly, though there was no real malice in the action.</p>
<p>“Only all the time.”</p>
<p>Ptolemy grimaced, then took a big swig of coffee before responding. “Yes, that’s sort of why I wanted to get a different roommate this year… I do love him, but he definitely takes the overprotective big brother roll to the extreme.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, I got that,” Kitty said, and Ptolemy’s expression shifted to one of mild concern.</p>
<p>“I hope he’s not causing you too much trouble…”</p>
<p>“Oh no, no!” Kitty shook her head, needing to wipe that expression off Ptolemy’s face immediately. It looked <em>wrong </em>for him to be upset. “I mean, I’ll admit he can be a handful, but he’s alright 80% of the time.”</p>
<p>“Wow, that’s much better than I was expecting.” Ptolemy nodded somberly, then met Kitty’s gaze and they both broke out into a round of giggles.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry if I distracted you, by the way,” Ptolemy said once they’d settled down. He gestured to Kitty’s collection of textbooks and notes. “I <em>had </em>actually meant to talk to you, but only to ask if I could sit here and do my own work; this is the only available spot in the café.”</p>
<p>“No, it’s fine,” Kitty responded, waving away his apology. “I was losing focus anyway; I’ve been trying to write this paper for hours and I don’t know how much more my mind can handle today.”</p>
<p>“Ah, yes—midterms.” Ptolemy dug around in his backpack and brought out a humongous textbook. It was obviously quite heavy, because he barely got it over the table before it slipped from his grip and landed just shy of his coffee cup with a loud <em>bang!</em> In unison, all patrons in the shop turned towards their corner as Ptolemy’s eyes widened in embarrassment.</p>
<p>“Oops,” he murmured, then gestured to the offending book. “This ethics book has been the bane of my existence for the past two weeks.”</p>
<p>“I can imagine,” Kitty responded, grimacing at the plethora of colored tabs sticking out of the pages.</p>
<p>“Yes… although, I have to say I’m not nearly as stressed as my flatmate.” A haunted look flashed across Ptolemy’s face so quickly Kitty thought she imagined it. “He’s been absolutely losing his mind, poor thing… that’s why I figured I’d get out and try to do some work at the nearby café.”</p>
<p>“To escape for a bit?” Kitty took a sip of coffee, glancing at him knowingly over the rim of her cup, and Ptolemy tried to suppress another pained grimace.</p>
<p>“To give him some space,” he corrected. Then, after a pause, he added, “And yes, to give myself a few hours of sanity as well.”</p>
<p>“It’s that bad, huh?”</p>
<p>“Well, by this point I’m used to the way he acts when he gets overly stressed—which, unfortunately, is quite often.” Ptolemy paused, musing on some inner thoughts. “I do wish I could help him more, but I’ve realized the best solution when he gets this way is to let him work things out in his own time. An unfortunate downside is that he’s quite restless and tends to wander around the flat muttering to himself, not to mention his tendency to leave things scattered around at random, so… neither of us gets any peace and quiet during this stage.”</p>
<p>“I understand.” Kitty nodded knowingly. “I rarely get any time to myself with Bartimaeus—I mean he’s <em>constantly</em> trying to hang out, which is fine usually, but when midterms come up…” She shook her head exhaustedly. “And then, sometimes when he <em>really</em> wants attention—” Suddenly, Kitty realized that she’d been dangerously close to insulting the brother of the boy sitting across from her. She met Ptolemy’s gaze, ready to apologize, but found him chuckling and nodding his head.</p>
<p>“Trust me, no one understands your predicament better than myself,” he responded, and his grin showed no ill-will. “I’m sorry that you’re now the brunt of his focus.”</p>
<p>“No, no,” Kitty waved away the apology. “Like I said, most of the time it’s fine, but I suppose certain times are just more stressful for everyone.”</p>
<p>“And everyone shows their stress in different ways.”</p>
<p>Kitty nodded, and a companionable silence descended over the table. Soon, the pair had their respective textbooks open and were pouring over notes from the past semester of classes. They both became so wrapped up in their studying that a sharp <em>ding!</em> from Ptolemy’s backpack nearly made them jump out of their seats. He gave an apologetic grimace and fished around the backpack for his phone.</p>
<p>“Ah,” he said, a corner of his mouth lifting as he read the message he’d just received. “It seems my flatmate has calmed down and wants to know if I’d like any company.”</p>
<p>“Well, feel free to go if you—wait.” Kitty pulled her phone out of her pocket, long since put on silent mode, and scrolled through the barrage of texts that had piled up during her short time with Ptolemy. She raised an eyebrow at said boy, who looked inquisitively back at her. “Has Bartimaeus met your flatmate yet?”</p>
<p>“No, we just recently moved in together; why?”</p>
<p>Kitty flashed a mischievous smile. “What do you say we give your brother a new friend to entertain?”</p>
<p>Ptolemy laughed, his entire face lighting up. “I’d say that’s a<em> very</em> good idea.”</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>“Hmm…not very intimidating, is he?” Bartimaeus asked, circling the pale boy as if he were a lion trying to decide if this particular prey was worth the effort. “Looks like a gust of wind might knock the poor sod over…”</p>
<p>“<em>Excuse </em>me,” the boy snapped, his unexpectedly stern voice overtaking Ptolemy’s groan of embarrassment. “I can hear everything you’re saying, in case you didn’t realize.”</p>
<p>“Oh no, I realized.” Bartimaeus flashed a grin and ruffled the boy’s hair, earning a snarl of annoyance. “Aw, don’t get so bent out of shape, Natty boy.”</p>
<p>“That is <em>not</em> my name!” Nathaniel hissed, swatting Bartimaeus’ hand away.</p>
<p>“…Well, this isn’t quite the way I expected things to go,” Kitty commented as the pair started bickering in earnest. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Ptolemy running a stressed hand through his hair.</p>
<p>“It was one of the two ways <em>I</em> thought this would turn out, actually,” he admitted guiltily. “I figured my brother would either take Nathaniel under his wing, or they’d end up pretty much like <em>this.”</em></p>
<p>Kitty pondered this in silence for a few seconds, before letting out a defeated sigh.</p>
<p>“Okay, yeah… Honestly, once you told me that <em>Nathaniel Underwood </em>was your roommate, my hopes of a smooth meeting went down the drain, too. That kid’s had a stick up his ass since Year 9.”</p>
<p>“You’ve known him that long?” Ptolemy asked, surprised.</p>
<p>“Unfortunately, yes.” Kitty smirked. “We didn’t interact that much at first, although I could tell he’s always had it out for me for some reason. One day after school he cornered me outside and started lecturing me on how rude I was for not paying attention during class… He was getting really aggressive about it, so I punched him in the face.”</p>
<p>“…Oh,” Ptolemy said, eyes shifting between Kitty and Nathaniel a few times before he nodded solemnly. “Yes, I can definitely see that happening.”</p>
<p>“What, him trying to boss people around, or me knocking a scrawny little kid upside the jaw?” Kitty raised an expectant eyebrow.</p>
<p>“Both,” Ptolemy responded, and the duo broke into a laugh.</p>
<p>“Hey!” Nathaniel exclaimed, his voice cutting through the amiable atmosphere like a knife.  “Ptolemy, can you <em>please</em> do something about this brother of yours? I don’t think I can stand another minute of him harassing me.”</p>
<p>“Listen, Nat, giving you fashion advice about your atrocious style isn’t ‘harassment,’ it’s <em>helpful</em>,” Bartimaeus said, to which Nathaniel shot him a deadly glare. Bartimaeus looked at Kitty imploringly. “Kitty, can <em>you</em> do something about your obnoxious childhood friend?”</p>
<p>“Oh, we’re not friends,” Kitty and Nathaniel said in unison, a bit too quickly. Ptolemy and Bartimaeus shared a disbelieving look.</p>
<p>“Ah, I see… old flames, then,” Bartimaeus said, nodding sagely.</p>
<p>“Oh god <em>no!</em>” Kitty exclaimed as Nathaniel sputtered unintelligibly.</p>
<p>“It’s okay, Nat, you can admit it.” Bartimaeus wrapped an amiable arm around Nathaniel’s shoulders, which the boy promptly shoved off.</p>
<p>“There’s nothing to admit!” he practically screeched, and just like that the pair were bickering even more heatedly than before.</p>
<p>“I’m glad we decided to host the meetup at my flat instead of the coffee shop,” Ptolemy murmured, pointedly ignoring the blush still covering Kitty’s face. “We’d have definitely been kicked out by now.”</p>
<p>“Oh, for sure,” she said with a laugh, grateful at the change of subject. She nodded her head to Bartimaeus and Nathaniel. “Think they’ll ever get along?”</p>
<p>“Only time will tell.” Ptolemy glanced sideways and met Kitty’s gaze, flashing a bright smile. “Well, at least <em>we </em>can hold a normal conversation—that’s got to count for something, right?”</p>
<p>“Definitely.” Kitty’s smile mirrored his and she held out a hand. “To new friendships?”</p>
<p>“To new friendships,” Ptolemy agreed, grasping her hand firmly. He let out a chuckle and gestured with his free hand to the still-warring pair across the room. “And to whatever <em>that</em> turns out to be.”</p>
<p>Kitty rolled her eyes in agreement, a smile still tugging at the edges of her lips. It seemed as though her life was about to get <em>very </em>interesting.</p>
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